tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82071570464973334512024-03-24T00:11:03.682-07:00My Incarnation.comby Russ Allison Loar
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<br>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-91515287137182208312024-03-23T17:13:00.000-07:002024-03-23T17:13:58.778-07:00A Lie<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hknyQ-enwYk/SjoFUcs7aQI/AAAAAAAAB5g/-v6OI98UsV0/s1600-h/Baseball-black.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 318px;" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hknyQ-enwYk/SjoFUcs7aQI/AAAAAAAAB5g/-v6OI98UsV0/s320/Baseball-black.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5348593356316043522"></a><span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS; font-size:35px;font-weight:normal;line-height:80%;letter-spacing:-2px;">I</span><span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS; font-size:18px;"> was playing with a baseball I’d found in my front yard when two older boys walked up to me.<br />
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<p style=" text-indent: 20px;">One of them said, “That’s my baseball. I hit it over here all the way from the park.”<br />
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<p style=" text-indent: 20px;">The park was about three miles away, but I was seven years old and I believed him. I gave him the baseball. The two boys walked away laughing.<br />
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<p style=" text-indent: 20px;">Lying in bed that night, thinking over the events of the day, I realized those boys were laughing because they had told me a lie and I believed them. They were laughing at me.<br />
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<p style=" text-indent: 20px;">I decided I wouldn't be so stupid next time. Despite my decision, more than 50 years later I’m still surprised how skillfully people can lie and how easily I can be deceived.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family:Comic Sans MS; font-size:13px;color:#0066CC;"><a href="http://russallisonloar.com/" target="xxxx">~ by Russ Allison Loar</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol" target="xxxx">© All Rights Reserved</span></a>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-7429699803743848532024-03-16T12:15:00.000-07:002024-03-16T12:15:06.489-07:00My Revelation<br />
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 35px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;">F</span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">or me, this existence, "This," is eternity.<br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">The kingdom of heaven, and hell, and everything else in-between is at hand. Right here. Right now.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">Whatever is past and whatever may come, this moment is all about how far along I am as an eternal soul, an eternal being, an eternal something or another, names and labels being limited as they are.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek3DlIZLMLU/TiyCSrS1QII/AAAAAAAAGb4/aFA5RXSrees/s1600/My%2BRevelation.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633020491304616066" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ek3DlIZLMLU/TiyCSrS1QII/AAAAAAAAGb4/aFA5RXSrees/s320/My%2BRevelation.jpg" style="float: right; height: 320px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"><div style="text-indent: 20px;">This is my revelation.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">So many of us believe heaven is somewhere else, a reward for a life well-spent, our ethereal home where there will be no more strife and struggle.<br />
</span></div><br />
<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">But what if we died and awoke in heaven and it was a place just like Earth, where we inhabited physical bodies and had to put our spirituality to the test in a physical world of human interaction and social evolution? We might very well doubt we had entered the kingdom of God.<br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">For me, entering the kingdom of God is about awakening, seeing what has always been here. And for me, hell is also here. Wherever there is the possibility of heaven, there is the possibility of hell. It has something to do with free will.<br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">This is my revelation.<br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">I do not know where I will be after my body dies. Perhaps “I” and “where” will no longer apply. Nevertheless, today, I am in heaven. I cannot imagine a more heavenly miracle than the persistence of life, hope and love on this planet, here among the uninhabitable planets of our solar system. I cannot imagine a more heavenly miracle than the birth of a child.<br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">Here in heaven, you put a small seed into the ground and it comes back flowers.</span></div><br />
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<span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 90%;"><a href="http://russloarart.com/" target="xxxx">~ by Russ Allison Loar</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 90%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35905801@N03/" target="xxxx">~ Artwork by Maxine (aka Maxxximpact)</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol" target="xxxx">© All Rights Reserved</a></span>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-17813132097898426482024-03-09T13:00:00.000-08:002024-03-09T13:00:13.078-08:00Notable People I Have Met ~ Part Ten<br />
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<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 28px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison" target="_blank">Harlan Ellison ~ author & screenwriter</a></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ipxp7VKa2Q/WYeSqrTBsRI/AAAAAAAAKf4/tNlGUg0uv2M551RDVvCLea0zOHWcNCW2gCLcBGAs/s1600/Harlan%2B%2BEllison.bmp" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="611" data-original-width="489" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ipxp7VKa2Q/WYeSqrTBsRI/AAAAAAAAKf4/tNlGUg0uv2M551RDVvCLea0zOHWcNCW2gCLcBGAs/s320/Harlan%2B%2BEllison.bmp" width="256" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 35px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;">D</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">uring my journalism studies at Cal State Long Beach, professor Larry Meyer arranged for several of his students to interview Harlan Ellison for the college magazine. It was the early eighties, 1981 or 1982 I believe. During our frenetic interview with this manic personality, Ellison felt the need to explain that his psychiatrist said he had a “distended ego,” but that it was not a serious problem.</span><br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">Good to know.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">If I remember correctly, he lived somewhere near the Hollywood area in a large house packed with books and LPs. He had semicircular, ceiling-high bookshelves stuffed with books, accessed by a sliding library ladder. In another room was a room-length shelf overflowing with hundreds of LPs.</span><br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"></div><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><span> </span>No mere mortal would live long enough to read all those books or listen to all those albums, but they were necessary companions for this very intense man and his very intense mind.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">Interviewing Ellison was like drinking from a fire hose. He spoke with a kind of rapid-fire energy that intimidated the other students. But I was older, a returning college student on the path of a new career, so I had a little more resilience, a little more courage. And courage was required. When I prefaced a question by saying “As a science fiction writer. . . .” he exploded into a near rage about how he had written in many genres and how he hated being branded as a science fiction writer, even though he’d written stories for “The Outer Limits” and "Star Trek" television shows in the 1960s and the 1980s revival of “The Twilight Zone” and won numerous science fiction awards.</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">Ellison’s Wikipedia page calls him a writer of speculative fiction.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlan_Ellison"><i>{Click Here For Harlan Ellison's Wikipedia Page}</i></a></span><br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">The student photographer was shooting so constantly during the interview that when Ellison excused himself for a bathroom break, I advised the eager young man to back off a bit, as I could tell it was irritating Ellison. But the intrepid student photographer was undaunted and did not heed my advice. When Ellison returned, the student resumed his rapid-fire photographing and Ellison erupted: “If you don’t put that thing down I’m going to shove it right up your ass.”</span><br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"></div><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><span> </span>Clearly a man who could only be pushed so far.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></div></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">Ellison was angry about the state of American politics, especially about Watergate and former President Richard Nixon who resigned from office in 1974 under threat of impeachment. President Gerald Ford had unjustly spared Nixon from criminal prosecution, according to Ellison, by issuing him a pardon. Ellison said Nixon should have been made to stand face to face with the American people who would each slap him in the face as they walked by.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"></div><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"> </span> <span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">Our interview with Ellison was during the time when the first video game consoles became widely available. Ellison was not a fan of the new technology. He objected to the games that could not be won, games in which the player could only advance toward inevitable defeat as each level became increasingly harder to complete. He believed those types of games were programming young people to expect defeat in the real world.</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"></div><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"> </span> <span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">This prescient writer, who so often explored the future in so many of his stories, viewed the coming technological age with considerable apprehension. Like other iconic writers of science fiction and other genres, Ellison sounded a warning that so many in this age of smartphone addiction still refuse to hear.</span><br />
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<a href="http://russallisonloar.com/"><span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 80%;">~ by Russ Allison Loar</span></a><br />
<a href="http:/?/"><span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 80%;"></span></a><span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 80%;">© All Rights Reserved</span>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-80143070461952150252024-03-02T14:35:00.000-08:002024-03-09T13:01:52.393-08:00The Music Of Sound<br />
<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 35px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;">S</span><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"> ome people are more visual, some more audial. For me, it was always sound that penetrated my senses deeper than anything else.</span><br />
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<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hknyQ-enwYk/Sej8y6qntgI/AAAAAAAABcU/c37Kg7C7vE0/s1600-h/OldTurntableRecord.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5325784511037289986" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hknyQ-enwYk/Sej8y6qntgI/AAAAAAAABcU/c37Kg7C7vE0/s320/OldTurntableRecord.jpg" style="float: right; height: 240px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"></span><br />
<div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;">I love sound, all kinds of sounds. Like young people everywhere, I found emotional refuge in music while I was growing up. Music was a drug that restored the chemical imbalances in my brain. I loved sound so much I even became a musician for a few years.</span></div><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;">So many of the sounds in everyday life sound like music to me, even voices, and that caused problems in elementary school. I was never very good at math, but I had the added challenge of a math teacher with a Swedish accent, Mr. Westman. Every word he spoke sounded like a note. His sentences collected into melodies. His classroom lectures were sonatas some days, jazz improvisations other days.<br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;">Then, every once in a while my name poked through the melodic line: “Russell! What is the answer?” I didn’t even know the question. And even when he repeated the question, all I could hear was the music of his voice. I shook my head to signal my complete confusion, accompanied by the laughter of my far more attentive classmates.</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Near the end
of the school year Mr. Westman asked me to meet with him at one of the outdoor
wooden lunch tables. “Russell, I’ll be giving you a grade of D on your report
card,” he gravely intoned. “I want you to know that this is a gift.” All I could
think to say was, “Thanks!”<o:p></o:p></p>
</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;">One of my earliest memories is of the record player at my grandparent’s house next door. It was so tall I had to stand on a chair to turn it on. It was a 78 rpm record player on the top of a large mahogany cabinet that also had a small, black-and-white television and a radio. I managed to turn it on to play the record already on the turntable. The booming sound of the music was magic.<br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;">One afternoon I was listening once again to the old scratchy recording of the song, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--L9NPCbZbw" target="_blank">“New San Antonio Rose,”</a> by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. My grandfather was from Texas and the record was one of his favorites. Suddenly the sound slowed down and I thought some kind of monster was emerging from the music. It sounded like the voice of some awful demon accompanied by a train wreck. It was incredibly frightening. That was the day I learned what electricity was, and what could happen if its magic flow was briefly interrupted, for the demon and the train wreck quickly disappeared, and like a movie run backwards, the music reassembled itself and rose again from the darkness of some terrible underworld.</span></div><blockquote><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"><i>Moon in all your splendor knows only my heart,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"><i>Call back my Rose, Rose of San Antone,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"><i>Lips so sweet and tender like petals fallin' apart,</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;"><i>Speak once again of my love, my own.</i></span></blockquote><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 18px;">That was the day my grandfather taught me something about electricity.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Comic Sans MS; font-size: 90%;"><a href="http://russallisonloar.com/" target="xxxx">~ by Russ Allison Loar</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol" target="xxxx">© All Rights Reserved</a></span>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-88189251559390495332024-02-24T14:53:00.000-08:002024-02-24T14:53:55.542-08:00Under The Bed<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit64ngCjH4A6pU79WEmU1XJU4Bg4sBiObXA8xdm0e3pc9QzTLiC7jMIoD8vX5hGlExuLOKCv9jajxZ6LX3w5arSyas_2tfG-rwZhdQQiHtIUg63WEUQ1Ek5MnUQae9rs2YfeBKtRge3uNF/s1600-h/Bed+Painting.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5322551413490633426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit64ngCjH4A6pU79WEmU1XJU4Bg4sBiObXA8xdm0e3pc9QzTLiC7jMIoD8vX5hGlExuLOKCv9jajxZ6LX3w5arSyas_2tfG-rwZhdQQiHtIUg63WEUQ1Ek5MnUQae9rs2YfeBKtRge3uNF/s320/Bed+Painting.jpg" style="float: right; height: 314px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 35px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;">I</span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"> </span><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms";">remember seeing a white, colonial-style building fronted with columns</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms";"> on the day I was left at the orphanage.<br />
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</span><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">At least this memory was always in my mind, but knowing how insatiably curious I’ve always been about my biological parents, my biological circumstances, I knew that I may simply have been filling in the blanks of the great mystery that was my first two years of life. After all, I have absolutely no memory of the mother I'd lived with more than a year.<br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">One day in my early twenties I returned to the Children's Home Society, the first time since being left there for adoption. I'd phoned a social worker who agreed to meet with me, to tell me some basic “non-identifying” information about my parents. As I searched for the address, the building came into view. It looked exactly as I’d remembered: A white building, colonial style, columns and all.<br />
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</span></div><div style="text-indent: 20px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">I don’t remember the foster family I lived with for the next six months and I don’t remember being taken to the home of my new adoptive parents. Many years later, my grandmother told me that during the first few months, every time the doorbell rang, I’d run and hide under my bed. It took me a long time to shake that fear, the fear of losing my home once again. Even now I still get the urge once in a while to hide under the bed.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 90%;"><a href="http://russallisonloar.com/">~ by Russ Allison Loar</a><br />
<a href="http://erinpayneart.com/index.php" target="xxxx">~ Painting by Erin Payne</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_symbol" target="xxxx">© All Rights Reserved</a></span>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-54002112721162128262023-08-26T12:47:00.001-07:002024-03-12T16:19:47.982-07:00Notable People I Have Met ~ Part Eight<br />
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 28px; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlos_Vega" target="_blank">Carlos Vega ~ drummer</a></span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4HYg1gT04Nk96KMhvkHSgprc4qaY3FLvr7i3EvTKI0QrmhTRaXvWDdo4U-FrIZWxQuJS9nSumlehx5vo3zHOy9c6GiLwuRy8xS-fsfuCG8sd248s_1_656VY5XS_h36ANKL7bfK9yu83/s1600/Carlos+Vega.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy4HYg1gT04Nk96KMhvkHSgprc4qaY3FLvr7i3EvTKI0QrmhTRaXvWDdo4U-FrIZWxQuJS9nSumlehx5vo3zHOy9c6GiLwuRy8xS-fsfuCG8sd248s_1_656VY5XS_h36ANKL7bfK9yu83/s320/Carlos+Vega.jpg" width="249" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 35px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 35px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 35px; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;">C</span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">arlos</span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 35px; letter-spacing: -2px; line-height: 100%;">V</span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;">ega is perhaps best known as the drummer who played with James Taylor for about 13 years. Among musicians, he was known as a premier recording session drummer, having played with the best session musicians on albums for many of the most popular artists.</span><br />
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<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/VicsDrumShop/posts/1107244596013188" style="font-family: 'comic sans ms'; font-size: 18px;">Click on this link for his biography.</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"> <br />
<a href="http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/carlosvegadrumsolooasis.html">Click on this link for his drum solo video.</a><br />
<br /> Carlos was about 19 years old when I played my first gig with him. It was about 1976 and we were playing for a private party at the legendary Hollywood restaurant, Ma Maison, a favorite celebrity hangout.<br />
<br /> I was a guitar player and singer in a quartet called The Entertainers that was often booked at upscale locales for a very wealthy clientele. We played with a variety of drummers, including the legendary Ralph Humphrey who played with Frank Zappa and just about everybody else in the upper crust of musicians.<br />
<br /> When Ralph was unable to do the Ma Maison gig with us, he recommended young Carlos Vega, who was already making a name for himself by playing gigs with famous jazz players such as Freddie Hubbard.<br />
<br /> We were blown away by his remarkable balance between technical virtuosity and natural feeling. He was always right in the pocket, deep in the groove. I played with a variety of musicians during my fifteen years of gigs and recording sessions before changing careers, but I’d never met a young man so gifted and yet so humble about his talents. He was incredibly polite, </span><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"><span style="font-family: "comic sans ms";"><span style="font-size: 18px;">the kind of young man you’d want to bring home to meet your sister.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms";"><span style="font-size: 18px;"> Carlos was a joyful soul on the brink of a great career. Sadly, he committed suicide in 1998 at age 41. I am so glad our paths crossed, and so sorry he left this world too soon. I will always think of him as the eager young musician I knew, with so many great years ahead.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "comic sans ms"; font-size: 18px;"><i>~ to be continued</i></span>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8207157046497333451.post-76248622836999283402023-05-13T13:24:00.001-07:002024-03-12T16:18:40.018-07:00<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 40px; letter-spacing: -2px;">Notable People I Have Met</span><div><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 40px; letter-spacing: -2px;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 40px; letter-spacing: -2px;">T</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 25px;">he </span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 35px; letter-spacing: -2px;">List</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;">(Names in blue are linked to short essays.)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-family: "bookman old style";"><span style="font-size: 18px;">(2nd part means the person is on the second half of the post.)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style";"><span style="font-size: 18px;"><br />
</span></span> <br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style";"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2014/08/famous-people-i-have-met-part-one.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Bill Clinton:</a></u></span><span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">42<sup>nd</sup>
president of the United States</span>.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "bookman old style";"></span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2016/05/famous-people-i-have-met-part-six.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ray Bradbury:</a></u></span><span style="font-size: large;"> Author, screenwriter and winner of a Pulitzer Prize lifetime achievement award.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2019/04/notable-people-i-have-known-part-eleven.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Sherwood Rowland:</a></u> UC Irvine chemistry professor who won the 1995 Nobel Prize for discovery of man-made depletion of the ozone layer.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2016/05/my-afternoon-with-alex.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Alex Trebek:</a></u><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Host of “Jeopardy” ~ A brief question and answer period during taping of the show.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2014/04/famous-people-i-have-met-part-two.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Rafael Mendez:</a></u> Trumpet virtuoso.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2015/03/famous-people-i-have-met-part-four.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gary Owens:</a></u> Radio and television personality.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2015/03/famous-people-i-have-met-part-four.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">O.C. Smith:</a></u> ~ Pop "Little Green Apples" singer. (2nd part)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2015/06/famous-people-i-have-met-part-five.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ralph Humphrey:</a></u> Virtuoso drummer who played and recorded with Frank Zappa.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2016/05/notable-people-i-have-met-part-eight.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Carlos Vega:</a></u> Virtuoso session drummer who toured with James Taylor.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2017/04/notable-people-i-have-met-part-nine.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tom Hayden:</a></u> California state senator and activist at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2017/04/notable-people-i-have-met-part-nine.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Abbie Hoffman:</a></u> Political activist at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. (2nd part)</span><span style="font-size: large;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2017/08/notable-people-i-have-met-part-10.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Harlan Ellison:</a></u> Science fiction novelist and television screen playwright.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2015/08/famous-people-i-have-met-part-seven.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Don Callender:</a></u> Founder of Marie Callender’s restaurant chain.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2014/07/famous-people-i-have-met-part-three.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stan Wall:</a></u> Pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u><a href="https://myincarnation.blogspot.com/2015/06/famous-people-i-have-met-part-five.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Johnny Carson:</a></u> 30-year host of "The Tonight Show." (2nd part)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Steve Allen:</u> Original host of the “Tonight Show” and songwriter.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Marty Baron:</u> Journalist and editor who hired me to work for the Los Angeles Times, later editor of the Washington Post.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Michael Chabon:</u> Novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001.</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Ken Jennings:</u> Attended a Jeopardy! show in October 2022 and told him about my enounter eight years earlier with Alex Trebec. <br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span><br /><u>Carolyn Porco:</u> Planetary scientist, l<span style="white-space: normal;">eader of Cassini Imaging Team, member of Voyager Imaging Team and known for discoveries about Saturn and planetary rings.</span><br /><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Michael Dukakis:</u><span style="font-size: large;"> Massachusetts governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Quentin Crisp:</u> Author of “The Naked Civil Servant” and gay rights advocate.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Robert Bork:</u> Solicitor General nominated by President Ronald Reagan for the Supreme Court in 1987.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Chang-Lin Tien:</u> Chancellor of UC Berkeley.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Jack Peltason:</u> Chancellor of UC Irvine and later of the entire UC system.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Oakley Hall:</u> Author of “The Downhill Racers” and head of the UC Irvine writing program.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>David Stockman:</u> Reagan administration budget director.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Jack Kelly:</u> Co-star of 1950s TV show “Maverick”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Joey Bishop:</u> Entertainer and member of the “Rat Pack.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Sonny Bono:</u> Singer with Sonny & Cher, later congressman and U.S. senator.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Leslie Nielsen:</u> Film and television actor in “Airplane,” “Naked Gun” and others.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Politicians:</u> Dana Rohrabacher, Chris Cox, Bob Dornan, Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, Kathleen Brown, George Deukmejian, Pete Wilson, Dan Quayle, Ann Richards.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Oliver North:</u> Ronald Reagan aide implicated in Iran-Contra Scandal and later NRA president.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Ed Meese:</u> US Attorney General in the Reagan Administration.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Barbara Bush:</u> Wife of President H.W. Bush.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Mamie Van Doren:</u> “B” movie actress and sexpot.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Arnold Beckman:</u> Inventor of the PH meter and philanthropist.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Duvall Hecht:</u> Founder of Books On Tape.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Daryl Gates:</u> Los Angeles police chief.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>James Edwards Senior:</u> Founder of the Edwards theater chain.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Chuck Jones:</u> Animator and creator of Porky Pig, Daffy Duck and others.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>John H. Dalton:</u> Secretary of the US Navy.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Arthur Laffer:</u> Supply-side economist who influenced President Reagan’s monetary policies.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>C. Everett Koop:</u> US Surgeon General</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Boyd Coddington:</u> Hot rod and custom automobile designer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>David Broder:</u> Washington Post writer, political columnist and author.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>William Kennedy:</u> Novelist and author of “Ironweed” ~ mail contact</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Patrick Stewart:</u> Actor who portrayed Captain Jean-Luc Picard on “Star Trek.”</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Ken Norton:</u> Former boxing heavyweight champion of the world.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Adrienne Rich:</u> Poet</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><u><span style="font-size: large;">Edward Albee: Playwright</span></u></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Robert Hass:</u> Poet</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Seamus Heaney:</u> Poet, playwright and translator.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Czeslaw Milosz:</u> Poet</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>W.S. Merwin:</u> Poet</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>James Roosevelt:</u> Son of and secretary to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>David Harrington:</u> Co-founder of the Kronos Quartet.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>John Cleese:</u> Actor and a member of Monty Python.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Robert Pinsky:</u> US Poet Laureate.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>W.D. Snodgrass:</u> Pulitzer Prize winning poet.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Louise Gluck:</u> US Poet Laureate.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>William Rusher:</u> Publisher of the “National Review” magazine.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Neil deGrasse Tyson:</u> Astrophysicist, author, television host & many appearances ~ by email.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Henrik Drescher:</u> Children’s books illustrator ~ by email.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>James MacGregor Burns:</u> Historian and presidential biographer.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Jean-Michel Cousteau:</u> ~ Environmentalist, oceanographic explorer and son of Jacques Cousteau.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: x-large;"><u><span style="font-size: large;">Frederick Reines:</span></u></span><span style="font-size: large;"> UC Irvine Physics professor awarded the Nobel Prize in 1995 for discovery of the neutrino.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-size: large;">[Many more who I've either overlooked or forgotten.]</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />[More essays to come.]<br />
</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 16px;"><a href="http://russallisonloar.com/">~ by Russ Allison Loar</a></span><br />
<span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 16px;"><br />
</span><span style="color: #0066cc; font-family: "bookman old style"; font-size: 16px;">© All Rights Reserved</span></div>Russ Allison Loarhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10757215252727321125noreply@blogger.com